#Meteor

Yesterday EJ and I were enjoying a quiet, peaceful evening at home. Luke was in EJ’s lap and Hannah was on mine. Suddenly, EJ pointed at the window and shouted, “Whoa! What is THAT?” I quickly looked out the window as Hannah leaped off my lap barking in excitement. We saw a huge fireball streaking south across the sky. It was blue with a fiery red tail. EJ said he saw it spiraling. We’ve never before seen anything like it.

A few minutes later, news and weather pages and sites lit up with people’s stories and videos of sightings. Some people said that they heard a boom and their houses shook. ABC News posted:

The sparkling display sent social media users into a frenzy, making “#meteor” a top 5 trending topic in the U.S. on Twitter.

Michigan Weather Authority posted on their Facebook page:

This was meteor entering our atmosphere flashing over into a meteorite as it passed through our atmosphere creating that tail flash and sonic rumble. It was heard, felt and seen in several states including Michigan, Ohio, Indiana as well as in Canada. It appears as though most of it burned up upon reentry and there are reports that what was left may have landed within Lake Michigan and St Clair Shores causing at least a 2.0 quake.

EJ stayed up late because of the meteor excitement. Hannah wanted outside just before EJ went to bed so he came out with us. The stars appeared extremely bright in the dark cloudless sky. We saw light pillars on the horizon. One reached high into the sky. They weren’t as strong as have been seen elsewhere, but they were noticeable.

We were really glad that we saw these awesome sights. They were very cool. I don’t have photos because the meteor went too fast and I don’t know how to take good night-time photos. The photo at the top of this page is not mine. It is a royalty free photo by Alexander Andrews which I got from Unsplash.

Hannah Joy

Hannah always watches me from the window when I go out to care for the ducks and chickens in the early morning. This morning I was able to get a photo of her at the window. EJ says that Hannah cries whenever I go outside without her. When I am with Hannah, she stays very close to me. She follows me and either lays at my feet or on my lap. I think she is glad to be loved.

The animal shelter where we adopted Hannah posted a photo of another dog needing a home at their Facebook page. The dog is a male that looks just like Hannah. EJ is tempted…but one dog at a time is enough for us.

This afternoon when I went out to the garage to clean out the litter boxes, I found that Miss Madeline Meadows, our serial killer cat, had put the remains of her squirrel in their food dish. There’s not much left. Yuck. I got a shovel and–trying not to look at the remains too closely because it grosses me out–I picked it up and carried it to the edge of the forest. I’m really hoping that Madeline won’t bring it back. It’s beginning to have a horror movie-ish sort of feel to it.

11 Comments on “#Meteor”

Here in Southeast Michigan (Lincoln Park), I heard the noise, but totally missed the flash. How lucky for us that dash cam videos and security cameras were able to capture this event for the rest of us who were not outside on a cold January evening, or had the curtains open. Like you said, I am thankful for social media where we could view this extravaganza shortly after it happened.. I looked on Twitter and I think there were three subjects involving the meteor shortly thereafter. Yesterday, Paul Gross, Local 4 meteorologist, gave a scientific presentation about meteors and how to properly identify a meteor rock – it was fascinating.

Welcome to my blog, Linda, and thank you for sharing! The meteor was fascinating and I love hearing people’s stories of their experience and seeing all the videos. We didn’t hear the boom but that could be because Hannah was excited and barking! I would love to find a meteor rock but there’s more chance of Southeast Michigan finding one than us–at least from this particular meteor. I wouldn’t know a meteor rock if I saw one so I probably should learn how to recognize them. 🙂

Thank you TJ – I was referred to your blog post link about the meteor by fellow WordPress blogger Uncle Tree, as I commented on his recent sun photos and I said we were having some excitement in the sky as well. UT commented and replied with your post link. Yesterday I learned some facts about the meteor from Paul Gross at Click on Detroit. He is not only a meteorologist, but also interested in teaching scientific things. He showed a video of a meteor test kit and a piece of a meteor. He said most of the meteors that come down are the size of Grape Nuts cereal nuggets. He said a real meteor rock would be very heavy – heavier than an “Earth rock” that was the same size … they are much heavier because they have iron in them. Because of the iron, if you take a magnet, it will cling to the rock. He demonstrated this. He said you can “test” the rock to see if it leaves scrapings. He had an official kit, and showed this in the video – no scrapings or coloring were left on the scraping tile from the meteor rock, as opposed to a regular rock which would leave the color of the rock on the tile. He said a comparable “scratch test” can be done if you flip your toilet tank lid upside down and use the porous surface on that tank lid – it gives the same reading. I thought the whole topic was fascinating as well. Today, I read that if your home/property was hit by a meteor, that you would be insured – insurance companies treat it like a natural disaster such as heavy wind damage or a tornado.

That is extremely interesting! Thank you so much for sharing this information. I will try to head over to Click on Detroit to watch the video. I just read that experts from all over the world are in southeastern Michigan searching for meteor rocks. The article said that one expert has already found one.

You’re welcome – I believe they took the live video down from Facebook. I follow Paul Gross on Twitter and he told us he was giving a talk at 1:00 p.m. and I watched it later in the day, as opposed to “live”. He said it was going to be posted – I never found the actual video (maybe you will) but Click on Detroit did post this story which recapped his info and told about the scratch test. On Facebook earlier today I read that the Michigan meteor was 6 feet wide, and exploded with the power of 100 tons of TNT according to NASA and they said they are sending NASA scientists to Howell to look for it. Those are probably who you read about – that article may have been from M Live and I went to see if the story was still trending to send to you and it is gone from Facebook. But this was from “Click on Detroit” … I am fascinated like you about it.

Yes, isn’t it? I follow Paul Gross on Twitter and he posted a couple of pics of a Click on Detroit photographer (Jacob Nagel) who found a piece as well. If you’re on Twitter, it is the top pic on #Fireball2018.